1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for making an electric wire for a harness which are well suited for use in production of an electric wire for a vehicular harness.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In FIG. 9, the reference character W designates a terminal-equipped electric wire for a harness which includes an electric wire W0 provided by cutting a wire to length and terminals T crimped and connected to opposite ends of the electric wire W0. A known apparatus for making the terminal-equipped harness electric wire W of FIG. 9 is shown in FIG. 10.
The apparatus for making the harness electric wire shown in FIG. 10 comprises a cut length setting portion 201, a wire supply portion 202, an electric wire length measuring portion 203, a cutting and stripping portion 204, a first terminal crimping portion 205, a second terminal crimping portion 206, and a stock portion 207. In the apparatus of FIG. 10, the electric wire length measuring portion 203 measures the feed of a coated wire supplied sequentially from the wire supply portion 202, and the cutting and stripping portion 204 cuts the wire each time the feed of the wire measured by the electric wire length measuring portion 203 equals a value set by the cut length setting portion 201, thereby to form a harness electric wire having a predetermined length. Further, in the apparatus of FIG. 10, the cutting and stripping portion 204 exposes a core wire at opposite ends of the harness electric wire, and the first and second terminal crimping portions 205, 206 crimp terminals to connect the terminals to the exposed core wire, thereby to form the terminal-equipped harness electric wire W as shown in FIG. 9. The stock portion 207 is provided for storing the thus produced terminal-equipped harness electric wires W.
In the wire supply portion 202 is prepared an annular coil of wire A as shown in FIG. 11, one end of the coil of wire A being introduced into the electric wire length measuring portion 203-through a pulley not shown. Thus, a new coil of wire must be provided if the wire in the coil A is exhausted or if a need arises to change the size, color, kind or the like of the wire. For using the new coil of wire after the complete exhaustion of the coil of wire A, it is necessary to temporarily interrupt the drive of the apparatus and to perform a cumbersome operation of setting the wire to the electric wire length measuring portion 203, resulting in lowered production efficiency. When the new coil of wire is used, it is a customary practice to join the core wire at an initial end of a wire Wb in a new coil of wire B to the core wire at a terminal end of a wire Wa introduced from the coil of wire A toward the electric wire length measuring portion 203 as shown in FIG. 12 before the wire in the old coil A is completely exhausted, to prevent the intermission of the continuity of the wires.
The conventional apparatus has sequentially produced the terminal-equipped harness electric wires W independently of the presence of the joint formed between the wire in the old coil A and the wire in the new coil B as above described. An operator has visually confirmed the discharged terminal-equipped harness electric wires to discriminate the terminal-equipped harness electric wire having the joint from acceptable products.
However, as no choice is allowed but to produce the terminal-equipped harness electric wires independently of the presence of the joint in the conventional manner, the operator has been required to previously determine the number of products in consideration for the number of joints or to add the amount of shortage to the number of products after interruption of the apparatus in order to automatically make a predetermined number of harness electric wires. Furthermore, the harness electric wire having the joint has been scrapped after the terminals are attached thereto, resulting in losses of terminals as well as of wires.
Another problem with the conventional apparatus is that the terminal-equipped harness electric wire with the joint must be found out by visual check, thereby lowering operation efficiency.
The foregoing problems arise not only in discrimination between the allowable products and the harness electric wires having the joint but also in discrimination between the allowable products and harness electric wires having a portion to be removed such as a flaw on the coating. In particular, for discrimination between the allowable products and the harness electric wires having the portion to be removed such as a flaw on the coating, it is difficult to previously obtain the number of defective harness electric wires. This requires additional production of the electric wires equalling, in number, the defective products visually discovered.